I grew up in Rheinfelden, a
small town in the south of Germany close
to the river Rhine. I started playin guitar during the first years in
school, and sonn became a member of the local mandolin orchestra. I
attended several seminars held by the BDZ (Bund Deutscher Zupfmusiker),
the german association of mandolin orchestras and soon played good
enough to become a member of the Badisches Zupforchester
(Mandolinorchestra of the district of Baden) where I played the guitar
and later the mandolin.

I studied physics in Freiburg and started teaching the guitar, playing
the mandolin, conducting a mandolin orchestra. I attended a course in
conducting at the Bundesakademie für musikalische
Weiterbildung in Trossingen. For many years I was teaching guitar and
mandolin at the seminars of the BDZ for young players in
Baden.

My first job brought me and my wife to Wiesbaden where I
worked as a
programmer and soon became the conductor of the Mandolin
Orchestra SBO Mainz-Bretzenheim.

Two years later we returned to Freiburg, where I studied
musicology at
the university and earned my money as a guitar teacher at the music
school in Waldkirch. I did not finish with musicology, but during those
years I could improve my knowledge of music and my technique on the
mandolin.

For several years I was conducting mandolin orchestras in Kollnau and
Kiechlinsbergen. Meanwhile I do only occasionally play with mandolin
orchestras, my main activity ist with our bluegrass band Blackberry Jam
or playing alone on
my mandolin - mostly playing my own pieces or composing new stuff for
the mandolin. This site is a place where I show my pieces as sheet
music or recordings.

The mandolin is my favorite instrument now, and I play the guitar only
occasionally.

Playing
solo

wearing a sweater of the
Kiechlinsgergen orchestra, where I
conducted for several years

happy day

This picture shows me
before a performance of Mozarts "Don
Giovanni" at the opera house in Zürich (Switzerland) with
Celilia
Bartoli and Nicolaus Harnoncourt as conductor

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